Oct 24 2008
Player Preview: The Spanish Connection
To explain to anyone who doesn’t love giving foreigners stupid nicknames, the Spanish Connection is third year PG Sergio Rodriguez and rookie SG Rudy Fernandez, both of Spain (obviously), and even more specifically, an alley-oop from the former to the latter. They’re included together because it seems unfair, especially at this early point in their careers, to mention one without the other.
Sergio’s coming off being left out of the Blazers rotation for most of last season, and making the least of his measly minutes by shooting horrendously, whipping passes off Joel Przybilla’s concrete fingers, and griping to foreign newspapers, thinking that no one in America reads El Pais. Then it got worse - he got left off the silver medalist Spanish basketball team, replaced by phenom Ricky Rubio (and yes, the world is contractually obliged to put “phenom” in front of Rubio’s name. Actually, Spanish phenom is the technical term, but I figured that would be redundant, as it’s obvious the guy is Spanish if he’s playing for the Spanish team). The only silver lining that could have possibly came from that slight is that there aren’t questions of him being bigoted against Chinese people. Over the last year, on Sergio’s good nights, it looked like his career was stalling. On the bad, it looked like he was going in reverse.
Enter Rudy. Sergio’s friend from across the pond, Fernandez, has played with the PG for years, a fact that I am sure wasn’t lost when Kevin Pritchard bought Phoenix’s pick, just like he did before to acquire Sergio. Aside from the whole eye fiasco, Rudy’s summer was faultless, showing himself as one of Spain’s top players, and even dunking on Dwight Howard for good measure. He’s a high flyer with deadly range. I don’t want to get into fawning over him too much, but seriously, I’d try to play matchmaker for him and my sister, just so I could be close to him. He’s that good. I would pimp out my only sibling to be near him. Either way, he would be good no matter what coming over here, but he brings more than his own skills - he brings the connection.
Together, the language barrier for both players is made less difficult, and along with that, there’s pre-made chemistry and with that a morale boost. These two guys belong on the same team together, and luckily, that team is the Blazers. This could be a surgent year for Sergio (I hesitate to use “resurgent” considering there hasn’t been a surge in Sergio’s career so far) and Rudy should prove to be a Rookie of the Year contender throughout the season.
Halloween Costume:
Darryl Hall and John Oates, better known as Hall and Oates. Like these beloved 80s hit-makers, the Spanish Connection is truly greater than the sum of its parts, even if one has more talent than the other.
